Hours case folds
Page 10
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by Amanda Bradbury • Rotherham haulier JG Osborne has made an official complaint to the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire following the collapse of a police prosecution of 147 alleged drivers' hours offences.
Although no action has been taken against the company, Osborne says the police investigation cost him at least £ 200,000 worth of business.
According to Osborne, the Internal Investigation branch of South Yorkshire Police has agreed to investigate an officer's conduct during the gathering of evidence for the case; this has not been con firmed by the police. The move follows the decision of North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner John Hampton not to take disciplinary action against the company which operates 25 vehicles on general haulage to Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain (see page 26).
Hampton said that among 147 alleged offences by Osborne drivers, none was "of the most serious nature". No police prosecution in the UK or abroad has yet proceeded against Osborne's drivers.
The international haulier says the attempted police prosecution hit its turnover for the year to July 1993, which fell by £400,000 to £1.5m.
Some of this loss can be attributed to the publicity surrounding the company after a murder was committed on its premises in July last year, says director Ron Osborne (CMG-12 August 1992).
But he says the scale of the police's allegations led to fears that the company could lose its licence and the decline of at least two major contracts.
The company says a credit company's refusal to finance a new vehicle was influenced by publicity surrounding disciplinary hearings which followed the police's allegations.